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NEWSLETTER JUNE 2009
The newsletter can be found below, and includes the following topics:
You can also download the newsletter in PDF format.
WEST SUSSEX RAIL USERS ASSOCIATION
17, The Crescent, West Wittering, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 8EE
Tel: 01243 673393
E-mail:
I am writing yet another Newsletter as we are still without a Secretary. It is about the franchise, news of our Annual General Meeting, a bit about website developments and a reminder for those who have not yet paid their subscriptions.
Franchise
The Department for Transport (DfT) has just announced that Govia has successfully retained the South Central rail franchise, the business it currently operates as Southern. The new franchise, which will retain the name “Southern”, will start on 20 September 2009 and will run for five years ten months until 25 July 2015. The final year is subject to performance and there is a two year extension available at the discretion of the DfT. There will be more about this in a later Newsletter, at the AGM and on the website.
Annual General Meeting
I can now confirm that the AGM will be on Saturday 20th June in the Salvation Army Hall in Booth Way, Horsham, RH13 5PZ. This is a few minutes walk from Horsham Station’s eastern entrance and is off Depot Road. It can also be reached from the roundabout just north of Horsham Station, Booth Way is a turning off this roundabout. This year we will have two principal speakers. Chris Burchell, Managing Director of Southern will be there with his team who will tell us more about the new franchise. We will also have Nick Herbert MP for Arundel and the South Downs who has been running a vigorous campaign to improve journey times to Arundel and Amberley. There will be ample time for members to put questions to both our guest speakers. The meeting will start at 10.15am and tea, coffee and biscuits will be available beforehand.
Committee
The following existing Committee members will be seeking re-election at the AGM:
- Chairman – Monica Edmonds (also representing Christ’s Hospital).
- Treasurer and Membership Secretary – Trevor Tupper (also representing stations on the West Coastway other than Chichester and Bognor).
- Other Committee members - Roger Leat (Bognor Regis); Jake Clausen (Littlehaven); Chris Cooper (Amberley), Valerie Webb (Pulborough), Peter Dempsey (Crawley), Peter Bulling (Arundel), Tony Greatbatch (Barnham) and Roger Keyworth (Chichester).
We are desperate for a new Secretary as we are also looking for new Committee members to represent Horsham, Billingshurst, Littlehampton, Angmering and Worthing. We hope that volunteers will come forward at or before the AGM to fill the vacancies.
Membership
I am enclosing a membership renewal form for those who do not have a standing order or who have not already paid their 2009 subscription. If there is no form enclosed, you can ignore the rest of this paragraph. There are various ways you can pay the £2 subscription: (a) by cheque and post, (b) in cash at the AGM, (c) on-line using the bank details shown in the form, or (d) by Standing Order.
Website and Publicity
We are grateful to Kevin Gordon and James Warwick for their offer to take on the challenge of bringing the website up to date. Once this has been done Newsletters will appear there. We will alert you by e-mail when these are added. If you do not have an e-mail address, these Newsletters will be sent by post.
I am concerned that some members may have not received the Newsletter sent last month, possibly because it has been treated as Spam. For this reason I am sending this Newsletter by post, as well as by e-mail, to those who did not confirm receipt last time. It is important that wsrua@btinternet.com is already in, or added to, your address book together with trevor@wsrua.org.uk and contact@wsrua.org.uk. Once we have a Secretary there will be another address or two to go into your address book and we will let you have these in due course.
Trevor Tupper - Membership Secretary